Big Stack Detroit River - Tournament

The first thing that surprised me was how many tournaments were going out of Elizabeth Park especially on a Sunday. In typical SE Michigan fashion it was small crews of guys competing to be who could be the biggest fish in a small pond. The tournament scene is very different over there compared to the west side of the state. The wind was whipping and I was certainly a little nervous about how rough it might be. Anytime I’d been in heavy current or waves I was fishing with a life jacket on and today would be no different. My gut was telling me to go start in the area that had 6 spots in it. I knew I could just drift through the whole thing just trying to control the boat as best I can. I also knew they would probably move around so I would be able to relocate them.

I wasn’t putting anything in the box unless it was over 2.5 pounds so I pitched my first keeper back in. I probably did that 4 times before I had a limit, not many tournaments or fisheries do you get to throw back keepers before you have a limit! I would lose my next fish right before I was about to flip him in. That is the beauty of throwing the tube on baitcast gear, you can muscle them in. That fish was an ok one and would have gone in the livewell for sure. I wasn’t bothered because I knew I needed 4 pounders. I picked up a couple there and kind of figured out where they were sitting today. They were not nearly as eager to bite and I had no chance of staying on them in the wind and waves. I was taking a lot of them over the bow and my bilge pump would get a workout on this day.

I headed to a rocky spot next, with the wind and waves cranking was going to be my only option here. Which was a pain because the floating eel grass was awful the entire time. A lot of baits you just simply couldn’t throw because of it. I caught a few fish there but decided I would just make the one quick pass. I hoped to come back to both those places later as it was supposed to calm down some and make life more manageable at the mouth. The next place was a non-descript area that had some nice ones in practice. I felt best about my chances to catch a school of the right ones here. My first pass revealed they were here as I was seeing them on MEGA Live but I was struggling to get them to bite. I lost a couple but it was so windy and rough my drift was over in no time. I was going to make another pass and try and fire them up with a blade bait. First cast with it and I catch a big one on it! By the time I landed it I was so far past that school there was no way I could get a couple more. I finished that drift and tried it one more time with no success.

I knew they were there and if it calmed down enough to fish it better in the afternoon I could make them pay I hoped. I had enough of taking them over the front and just not being able to fish well. I’m sure some of the veterans of Lake Erie could handle it no problem but it was tough for me. I decided I would head to an area protected by Celeron Island. I caught a couple more instantly there and then went to work. I could actually spot lock here and make multiple casts at a school. I boat flipped a big one with the tube and added another ok fish cranking. I need to get 3 more 4 pounders now and I felt really good about my chances of doing so. I beat on them for awhile here but I just couldn’t get any more big ones. I did lose one other heavy fish but they all feel pretty good when you set the hook on them in that current.

I had the deep drift to check that I found on day 1 of practice and the clean spot I caught the fat one in one cast cranking the day before. Those areas were both also not going to be too bad. Unfortunately, the both sucked for me today. I would try the clean spot again later in the day but never land a fish there. Other boats kept me off the deep drift the rest of the event. It had seemed a little calmer and was time to venture back out to the mouth again. I could have headed up river a ways too but I felt good about staying down here and grinding on them. There were a couple spots I really wanted to try but they were also very obvious. I didn’t want to run 5 miles to find boats on all those places. No one was back out at my depression with the 6 spots in it. I knew where they were there so I pulled right in on the waypoint and caught one that culled. A boat not in our tournament was driving by and immediately pulled in. I drifted back a ways to the next school and caught a few more but nothing that helped. By the time I was ready to move back up a competitor was sitting right where I wanted to be. I was a couple hundred yards away at this point and would never be able to get on where most of them were sitting again.

One more pass through the dumping grounds produced a few more cranking but nothing good. I just couldn’t effectively make multiple casts there and despite holding some decent ones in practice I couldn’t get one to fire but probably because I was struggling to be precise with my casts out there. Back to my non descript drift and they were still there. I cracked the whip on them for awhile in this spot. It just was so frustrating because every time I found them and catch one I would be off the spot by the time I got the fish unhooked and culling figured out. It was so frustrating! I would eventually bow up on a nice one only to have it break off quickly. I’m not sure what happened since I had just retied but that really sucked. The fish was sure to come to the surface and give me a good look at it while trying to throw my green pumpkin tube. I set down on my next drift and immediately caught another big one and made another small cull. A few drifts later and I stopped seeing as many on the MEGA Live, I really probably should have stuck it out on that spot in the wind and waves. Instead I elected to go run some things again and try some stuff I hadn’t been to yet.

I kept on catching them and desperately needed 2 more good ones. The clean spot with the scattered rock that I hadn’t fished yet produced a bite that I surely thought was one of the right ones. Such disappointment when it was only a 2 ¾ pounder. Another hole I hadn’t caught one in yet today produced another bite that came off right at the boat. That fish might have culled me up just a tiny bit but I will never know. If it did it would have been the only fish that I’d have weighed on a drop shot. Little did I know how important that fish might have been.

I headed to the weigh in and was glad to hear some of my buddies had caught them. I figured everyone had caught them. I didn’t know what I had other than it wasn’t enough and I was pretty happy with my day. I caught a ton of fish and was never on the right ones to begin with. My whole strategy was just to catch as many as I could and hope for some good ones mixed in as that is what I had seen in practice. I never had caught any giants but I had caught some solid ones that if things had went right I could have hit 20+. Instead I ended up with 18.35 and wasn’t upset at all, normally that is a great day! Except on that Great Lakes system, it’s like having 13 pounds anywhere else. I weighed them in congratulated my buddy Kyle on another Big Stack win this year and got on the road so I could see the girls before they went to bed.

Little did I know that I would finish in 9th place and first out of the money. Disappointing for sure but I am proud of a top 10 over there against that crew and their smallmouth skills. I fished well and I’m happy with that. A little bummed I couldn’t make a cull to get up another .03lbs though! Had the bites to do it but when you are catching that many you certainly aren’t going to put them all in the boat and I did land my 3 biggest bites. I’ll probably relive my painful oh so close big stack season in a later blog but I know I was on the right stuff and fishing well throughout the series even if my results are just so close. Ounces would have made a difference in 2 events and the other one well it just wasn’t meant to be.

I hope I’ve got all that out of my system because this weekend is Houghton Lake for the D&R Classic. That place is just so big and I feel that I know exactly what to look for after our last classic there. So I made a pre practice trip before it went off limits and it was very productive. Hoping to expand on that on the official practice day. I’ll have to be on my A game because Trevor has a college tournament and I’ll be flying solo. The weather is going to be COLD for that event and is going to make it even harder but I can’t wait.